Italian pasta exports to US face new tariffs of 107 per cent from January.
Italian pasta exporters are preparing to pull their products from supermarkets in the United States before a massive 107 per cent tariff takes effect in the new year, according to The Wall Street Journal.
In an article titled Italian Pasta Is Poised to Disappear From American Grocery Shelves, the American newspaper reported on Monday that major Italian pasta exporters believe that the tariffs will make it too expensive to do business in the US.
Washington plans to impose an additional “anti-dumping” duty of 91.74 per cent on 13 of the largest Italian pasta exporters, on top of the existing 15 per cent general tariff on European agri-food imports, with effect from January 2026.
“No one has the profit margins to sustain these tariffs,” Giuseppe Ferro, the chief executive of La Molisana, one of the Italian pasta companies affected, told the WSJ, adding: “It would be a real shame to have the market snatched from us for no real reason.”
Last month Ferro told reporters that the pasta company was ready to open a factory in the US as it would be “impossible for us to do business with tariffs at 107 per cent”.
Investigation
The anti-dumping duties stem from an investigation by the US department of commerce which found that La Molisana and Garofalo were selling pasta at unfairly low prices between July 2023 and June 2024.
However the Italian companies deny the accusations and have protested the US government’s preliminary findings. Some producers suspect that the decision is more than just a price issue.
“This isn’t about dumping: it’s an excuse to block imports,” Cosimo Rummo, CEO of Pasta Rummo, another Iatlian pasta producer set to be hit by the tariffs, told the WSJ.
Last month, Italian agriculture minister Francesco Lollobrigida hit out at the proposed new tariff which he claimed “would trigger a hyper-protectionist mechanism against our pasta producers, for which we see neither the need nor any justification”.
The US is one of Italy’s top export markets for pasta, with nearly €671 million in exports in 2024, according to agricultural group Coldiretti, which claimed the extra tariffs would deal a “fatal blow” to the Italian pasta sector.
Effects for American consumers
The 107 per cent tariff “would double the cost of a plate of pasta for American families, Coldiretti said, and would pave the way for “Italian-sounding” pasta products in the US.
In a recent article titled Why the Price of Italian Pasta May Soon Double for Americans, Time magazine reported that pasta imported from Italy last year represented around 12 per cent of the US pasta market.
The Time article also noted that the Italian-based Barilla – the biggest pasta brand in the US – produces most of its pasta sold in the US in the US, which would not be subject to the duties.
The new tariff rate is “preliminary,” an official from the US department of commerce told the Washington Post recently, and is set to be reviewed before being implemented in January.
